Professional Bio
C. William ("Bill") Wester, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also the Associate Director of Global Health Faculty Development and is a core faculty member of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH), where he serves on the VIGH Management Team.
The goal of his research includes long-term HIV complications with a focus on HIV-associated kidney disease and implementation science in resource-constrained settings of the world. He has served as the co-chair of the IeDEA Site Assessment Working Group for many years and has been actively engaged in the collection and analysis of site-level data for the purposes of informing and improving ongoing clinical initiatives/programs in such settings.
As a board-certified internist and infectious disease specialist, Dr. Wester has over two decades of HIV-scale-up and epidemic control experience in sub-Saharan Africa, including mentoring and training experience in Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia, and Botswana (where he lived/worked for eight years (2000-2008) prior to joining VUMC). He has successfully mentored trainees engaged in global health research, the majority of whom have gone on to pursue careers in academic medicine.
Dr. Wester serves as Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) for multiple ongoing NIH/Fogarty International Center training and research administration programs, as well as serving as MPI (Contact PI) for ongoing NIH (NIDDK)-funded translational, clinical research studies aimed at determining the main etiologies of early markers of kidney disease (albuminuria) in genetically susceptible adults living with HIV in northern Nigeria, in order to design tailored interventions to significantly lower the long-term risk of end stage kidney and related organ system complications among at-risk adults.
He also oversees (PI/PD) a very large CDC/PEPFAR-funded Vanderbilt University Medical Center/Friends in Global Health (2012-present) HIV technical assistance project ("Avante Program") initiative supporting HIV care and treatment in 149 health facilities where more than 360,000 persons are receiving potentially life-saving ART in Zambézia Province, Mozambique.
Relevant Links
Publications
Education
MD - Dartmouth College, 1991
Residency - Internal Medicine - St. Luke's Medical Center, 1994
Residency - Chief - St. Luke's Medical Center, 1995
Fellowship - Infectious Diseases - St. Luke's Medical Center, 1998
MPH - Quantitive Methods - Harvard University, 2010
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307